COYOTE HAD A STEPDAUGHTER. He fell in love with her. One day he got sick. He said to his wife, “I am going to die tomorrow. Don’t wrap me up in any blankets, just put me on the hill up there.”
The next day, when he was dying, he called his wife and stepdaughter over to him. “If any young man comes around here, make your daughter marry him. He will help you. That is all. I’m sorry I’m going to die.”
“I am sorry you are dying. I’ll make my daughter marry anyone who comes along.”
That night Coyote pretended to be dead. They placed him on the top of the hill, putting a blanket over him, but they did not wrap him up. Then they went home. They cried all that day and that evening.
After sunset someone came along. The daughter said, “My mother, someone is coming along.” The old woman said, “You know what your father said. You’ll be married to that fellow if he comes here.”
Coyote had changed himself to look like a young man. He’d painted himself all up. He went into the woman’s lodge.
“What is the matter here my sisters? Why are you crying?”
“I’ve just lost my husband. I placed him over on the hill.”
“What are you people going to do? I feel sorry for you. You ought to get your daughter married so you’ll have a son-in-law.”
The old woman said, “Coyote, my husband, said that the first man to come along should marry my daughter, so you may have her.”
“All right,” he said.
The old woman fixed up a tipi for them to live in. The next morning the girl got up before Coyote. She saw in the morning light that there was a scar on his shoulder. She looked close at him. The paint had rubbed off his face. She knew that it was Coyote. She went to her mother’s lodge then.
“That’s Old Man Coyote in there, that’s your husband. I’m not going to stay with him.”
“I’m going right over and fix him,” said the old woman.
Coyote heard her coming and grabbed his blanket and skipped out.
When she found him gone, she went up to where they’d placed his body. There was only his blanket there. She came back to her lodge. She put some soup on the fire.
“Trick on us,” she said to her daughter.